Why are watchmakers taking things to extremes?

To impress a global online audience, leading watch companies are adopting even more extreme measures to capture customers' attention. How did adventure sports and social media become so important to watchmakers wanting to stay on top? And Morris inestigates...

Not for the first time, watchmaking has embraced the spirit of adventure. After centuries of pushing the boundaries of timekeeping itself, brands are now adopting the deeply modern desire for "Likes": whether it's breaking the sound barrier while jumping from the edge of space, piloting an aeroplane at 200 knots below a bridge, or venturing 10,000 metres beneath the Pacific, watch companies cannot get enough of this cocktail of danger and daring. Better still, there is a ready supply of volunteers who will take the risk...

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"With extreme sports, you can't lie: it is not just about putting a logo somewhere," TAG Heuer CEO Jean-Claude Biver tells

GQ of the company's latest endorsement. The brand is supporting Nuit De La Glisse: Don't Crack Under Pressure, a pioneering film capturing bikers, surfers, skiers and wingsuit pilots in pursuit of their thrills. Thierry Donard, the director behind the jaw-dropping 4G visuals, feels that the partnership came naturally. "For me, TAG Heuer has always connected to individuals living on the edge. It was very involved in Formula One during its 'golden age' towards the end of the Seventies, and I think there are similarities with the state of mind you find nowadays in extreme sports, in the commitment and humble respect towards danger. I could easily compare Mathias Wyss, our main wingsuit pilot, to James Hunt."

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It's clear why brands are pursuing grand expeditions or adventure sports: there is a universal appeal, without any language barrier. And major watch brands understand they must go to extremes if they are to win over audiences who rarely read anything more than 140 characters. "Social media is the future," says Biver. "We must connect through all the possible communication tools so that the new generation can connect to us."

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Results can be impressive: TAG Heuer ambassador and pro surfer Garrett McNamara's Facebook posts on wave riding receive around 2,000 likes per post (in contrast, an official post focusing on an international footballer can receive fewer than 150). When the content is right, the potential is enormous: one wonders who will match Felix Baumgartner's Zenith-backed jump, which has been watched over 38 million times on YouTube alone.

But these massive media events are not just empty spectacle: they can prove inspirational as well. When director James Cameron teamed up with Rolex, he piloted a submersible 10,908 metres into the Mariana Trench.

Photography by National Geographic

The experience put the design team under pressure comparable to that experienced on the ocean floor. Cameron said of the collaboration: "What we see is the product of a small, highly motivated and experienced team working in a very short period of time to do something that other people would tell you was impossible. That's what I see in the sub and that's what I see in

[the watch, a specially modified Rolex Sea-Dweller]."

Brands with exploration in their DNA also enlist explorers to test watches in extreme environments. Few know this better than co-founder of Bremont, Nick English. "We love that real-life explorers choose to wear our watches, for example Ben Saunders testing the Terra Nova while retracing Scott's steps to the South Pole." As English explains, choosing a Bremont mechanical watch may be purely practical - your smartphone simply won't function at these temperatures. "As it is far too cold for any type of battery-operated device, the movement was specially oiled and the case was manufactured from aircraft-grade titanium to reduce weight as they carried their own supplies by sled."

Photography by Andy Ward

Certain devices not only aid a successful mission but can also be deployed when something goes wrong. Everest veteran Neil Laughton is well versed at timekeeping on his Breitling Emergency at minus-30. "It is a beautiful creation but it's the emergency locator beacon device that provides an extraordinary service to those of us who push ourselves in testing environments," he says. Having worn it everywhere from Greenland to the Sahara, Laughton clearly has faith in the brand. "To know that a button on your wrist will activate a search and rescue is very reassuring."

This close relationship between ambassador and brand can also see some genuine dialogue begin to develop. Hamilton CEO Sylvain Dolla has worked with Red Bull Air Race pilot Nicolas Ivanoff for the past decade. Not only did this result in Ivanoff's Edge 540 V3 featuring a huge image of a Hamilton (clearly visible on the Red Bull Air Race YouTube channel that boasts more than 28 million views), but Ivanoff has also suggested features. "He said, 'When I'm in my cockpit I can't hear any alarm because it's so noisy,'" explains Dolla. "He wanted a watch that could give him a 'visual alarm' - so we gave him a countdown for four minutes after departure."

Apart from posing a genuine risk to participants, it doesn't hurt that air racing looks spectacular, says Dolla. "What I really love with the Air Race is that it is super-visual. I've been to a grand prix and didn't have any feeling: you mainly watch the screen. If you see a football match, you have a strong emotion but that's more because you support a team. Even if you don't care who wins the Air Race, it will still have an extremely strong effect on you."

Whether it's Mike Horn wearing an Officine Panerai while circumnavigating the Arctic Circle, Venezuelan free diver Carlos Coste using his Oris timepiece as a lifeline or Tudor watches taking inspiration from the British North Greenland Expedition in 1952 to assist young adventurer James Bowthorpe's Hudson River Project, the appetite among watch brands to get involved is far from waning.

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Polar explorer Quentin Smith, who narrowly escaped death last year when the helicopter he was piloting ditched in the Antarctic, explains the primal appeal best: "The idea of not really experiencing life to its fullest potential is far more scary than dying."